Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist’s Guide to Global Warming (Vintage)
Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist’s Guide to Global Warming (Vintage) – Review
Bjorn Lomborg has written an extremely accessible, well-documented, handy book on the threats created by global warming. Lomborg’s statistical and economics background prevents him strip away the excess hype immediately surrounding this hot-button issue and focus instead on the factual issues of human well being over the next two hundred years or so. Many of his detractors either haven’t read the book or cite his background as a statistician and economist as somehow lessening the power of the work; of course Al Gore and the many Hollywood denizens who lecture on the evils of carbon (while possibly living an extremely carbon-laden lifestyle) are eminently less highly qualified to speak on the subject, but objectivity matters not to most of Lomborg’s detractors. Lomborg’s main thesis is that global warming is real and that some of it is probably caused by individual activity. He therefore explains the real significance of this warming for the earth and especially its individual inhabitants. Lomborg uses facts and is very good about possibly explaining the worst case scenarios versus possible scenarios. After fully explaining the consequences of this warming, Lomborg makes a fair case for better finishing part of government (largely) and personal funds to help with sensible priorities over the next few centuries. At the tip of the day, his cases are well crafted, and in many cases clearly refute the doomsday predictions of Gore and company. The book is well written, and easy to assimilate even for those without a technical background (disclaimer: my educational background is in biology), yet it never condescends or over-simplifies his arguments or reasoning. My only minor assessment of the book concerns the references. The references are very extensive (and have eventually led me to further excellent readings), but the format is annoying when searching for a explicit statement’s citation information. With that having been reportedly said, this is a minor nuisance and any inconvenience with the notes is greatly outweighed by the meaning of the text. This is the most practical, data-driven, honest book on the subject of global warming I have still read, and I recommend it highly.